Home Sweet Home

I thought it would be fun to do the "Show Us Where You Live Friday" from Kelly's Korner. I wish I really had the "Before" pictures to show of our kitchen. This is really Phase 3 from the original.

When we moved in back in 2003, this kitchen was the original 1950's kitchen with ugly, low cabinets, the original chipped tile countertops, an ancient vent-a-hood over the stove and a washer and dryer free-standing on one wall.

We came in and gutted the cabinets and decided on pretty white cabinets painted with one of my favorites whites- Country Stove White by Ralph Lauren. It's a great white without being too bright and not too yellowy. (Is that a word??)

Anyway, we did white formica countertops trimmed in white wood to start, kept the original creamy linoleum and built in a countertop over the washer and dryer.
Oh ya'll... I found a picture of what we did...


Fast forward to 2007... another phase of kitchen redo and add on of 1,000 additional square feet. We replaced countertops with granite, added new cabinetry where the washer and dryer used to be (added a laundry room around the corner as a new home for them), replaced wallpaper with a pretty beige toile wallpaper, got a new stainless stove, ripped up the linoleum and found beautiful wide-plank pine wood floors (who would cover them up??) and opened with an archway reminicent of another in the older part of our home into our brand new family room. I LOVE LOVE LOVE my kitchen and spend so much time there. It's really the heart of the home. Hope you enjoy!!
Here it is....

This is my kitchen island- actually a piece of furniture probably never intended to be a kitchen island- but that's the fun of it. It's different and functional and adds a lot of charm.

Looking towards the family room. I love having a TV in the kitchen to watch the Today show in the morning while I get breakfast ready or just have background noise while I'm working. (As if with 2 little boys there's not enough background noise!)

From the family room looking into my kitchen. I'm a big fan of Country French style- it's comfortable, warm and inviting. I love a house that you can come in and feel welcome and that just begs for you to come in and sit down. I also love blue and white and when I redid the kitchen, it went from having a sunny yellow wallpaper with the white cabinets to the taupe. After several years of that blue and yellow look, I have changed into the taupes and blues and it repeats throughout my house.